Award-winning blog – Living in rural Andalucia

Excited… our first lemons

One of the reasons we wanted to live in Spain, was the dream of picking a lemon off a tree. We fell in love with our secret valley, and then realized we were at the borderline altitude which made growing citrus trees difficult. ‘Impossible’, said Pablo. ‘Never’, said the plantsman at our nursery. But, wanting the dream to be a reality, but knowing the attempt may fail, we planted three trees.

We planted them in a sunny, sheltered corner. We nurtured them, fed them, watered them. Now, four years later, we have our first lemon harvest! To say we are excited is an understatement. We are lemon novices but have been told by friends that we should, once the trees are mature, get two harvests a year. We began thinking of lemonade, lemon curd, preserved lemons, lemon drizzle cake. You get the picture. Now, the dream is almost a reality.